Che Guevara (1928-1967)

Photo was taken on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service march for victims of the La Coubre explosion. On the far left of the photo is Fidel Castro, while in the center is Che Guevara, on the right : William Alexander Morgan and Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo. Source: Museo Che Guevara (Centro de Estudios Che Guevara en La Habana, Cuba). Photo: ukendt. Public Domain.

Se også på Socialistisk Bibliotek:

Foreword

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was officially born on June 14’th in Argentina in 1928.
(According to his own mother it was in reality May 14’th, see Anderson)

Che has had a resurrection as a political symbol, reappering on posters and in merchandice in the movement against capitalist globalisation, that has arisen since Seattle, December 1999.(*)
At the Zapatistas in Mexico and in demonstrations worldwide the pictures of Che are symbols in the struggle against neo-liberalism, against imperialism and first and foremost they are pictures of rebellion and revolution beyond national borders.

But no hero derserves to be deflected or misused. The use of the Che icon must not be a cover up for the political conceptions, practice and errors of Che.
We have therefore emphasized articles, that are central to the political practice and theory of Che. Also articles of Che himself in the anti-imperialist struggle, his conception of socialism, of Marxism and of guerilla warfare.

Several of the contributions are review articles dealing with seven biographies on Che (**). (Together with Che own autobiographical books from both ends of his political development: the motorcycle diaries while travelling through Latin America in 1952, and the tragic guerilla fight in Bolivia in 1967).

Articles in English

Against the Current

Michael Löwy: The CIA’s death machine at work (Issue 156, January-February 2012). Review of Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith, Who Killed Che? How the CIA got away with murder (Or Books, 2011).
“Using internal U.S. governmental documentation, only recently released, the authors use their forensic skills to analyze the evidence of the CIA’s involvement in the execution of a war prisoner captured alive.”

Kit Adam Wainer: Looking at Che Guevara (No.143, November/December 2009). Review of Olivier Besancenot and Michael Löwy, Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy (Monthly Review Press, 2009).
“Their commitment to the construction of a usable Che leads them, however, to downplay Che’s rejection of democracy as the antidote to bureaucratic ‘Marxism’, and to ignore evidence which contradicts their characterization of Che as an opponent of Stalinism.”
See also debate:
Peter Drucker: A letter on Che (No.144, January/February 2010).
Charlie Post: On the legacy of Che Guevara (No.146, May/June 2010).
Michael Löwy: An answer to Charlie Post (No.146, May/June 2010).

Michael Löwy: Che Guevara in search of a new socialism (No.142, September/October 2009).
“Che’s ideas on the construction of socialism are an attempt at ‘heroic creation’ of something new, the search – interrupted and incomplete – for a distinct model of socialism, radically opposed in many respects to the ‘actually existing’ bureaucratic caricature.”

Counterfire

Ralph Graham-Leigh: Che Guevara: Diary of a Combatant (Counterfire, 14 March 2014). Review of Ernesto Che Guevara, Diary of a Combatant, edited by Maria del Carmen Ariet (Ocean Press, 2013, 358 p.).
“Guevara’s diary during his time as a guerrilla in Cuba gives an unfiltered impression of both the man and of war during the Cuban revolution.”

Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. Part 97, – i: Neil Faulkner: A Marxist History of the World (Counterfire, 14 October 2012).
“The reforms that Fidel Castro introduced after the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship were real, but they were bestowed from above and straitjacketed by poverty.”

Elaine Graham-Leigh: Who Killed Che? How the CIA got away with murder (8 December 2011). Review of Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith, Who Killed Che? How the CIA got away with murder (OR Books, 2011).
“The latest documents surrounding Che Guevara’s death exposes the US government’s track record of assassinations since the 1950s, and demonstrates how the War on Terror is also a war on the rule of law.”

Fight racism! Fight imperialism!

Diana Raby: A master class in socialist economics (Issue 209, June/July 2009). Review of Helen Yaffe, Che Guevara: the economics of revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
“On the basis of 60 interviews with Che’s former colleagues and extensive archival research, including consultation of Guevara’s crucial notes for a critique of the Soviet Manual of political economy, Yaffe gives us unprecedented insight into his vital contribution to the Cuban Revolution and to Marxist theory.”

Green Left Weekly

Stuart Munckton: Che Guevara’s legacy lives on in Latin America (Issue 727, 6 October 2007).
“As the 40th anniversary of the death of Argentinean-born revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, murdered in Bolivia on October 9, 1967, on the orders of the CIA, arrives, there is increasing evidence that his spirit of struggle against injustice continues to get stronger in Latin America.”

In Defence of Marxism

Alan Woods: “Che” – an icon? The life and ideas of Ernesto Guevara (9 October 2007).
“On the 40th anniversary of his death it is appropriate that we make a balance sheet of this outstanding revolutionary and martyr. Alan Woods looks at the evolution of Che Guevara from his early days to the day he was killed.”

International Socialism

Mike Gonzalez: The resurrections of Che Guevara (No.77, Winter 1997, p.51-80)
“Che Guevara is still a symbol of resistance – and for good reason: he represents one of the few revolutions to have faced-down the might of American imperialism. But why did Che’s strategy so tragically end in his own death when he tried to export it to other countries? Mike Gonzalez takes a sympathetic but critical look at Che’s life and achievements.”

International Viewpoint

Michael Löwy: The long-waited appearance of an unpublished book by Ernesto Che Guevara: Critical Notes on Political Economy (No.386, February 2007).
“We have been waiting a long time, a very long time, for this book to be published. It consists of critical notes on the Manual of Political Economy of the USSR (the Spanish language edition of 1963), notes which Che Guevara edited during his stay in Tanzania and in Prague in 1965-66, after the failure of his mission to the Congo and before leaving for Bolivia.”

Michael Löwy: ‘Neither imitation nor copy’: Che Guevara: in search of a new socialism (Issue 347, February 2003).
“Che’s death in October 1967 interrupted a process of independent political maturation and intellectual development. His work is not a closed system, a polished system of thought with an answer to everything. On many questions, such as planning, the struggle against bureaucracy and so on, his thinking remains incomplete.”

Jacobin: Reason in Revolt

David Seddon: Che Guevara in the Congo (4 April 2017).
“Che Guevara’s expedition in the Congo, though ill-fated, stands as a crucial example of anti-imperialist solidarity.”

Samuel Farber: Assessing Che (23 May 2016).
“Che Guevara was an honest and committed revolutionary. But he never embraced socialism in its most democratic essence.”

James Bloodworth: The cult of Che (9 March 2011)
“The myth of Che Guevara’s virtue set against the decline of the Cuban revolution, however, is false. The romanticism around Che skirts over the unpalatable truths about the revolutionary’s life and conduct.”

Labour Worker

Peter Sedgwick: Guevara: right or wrong? (January 1968).
“Three months after Che’s death, we are no nearer to burying him. Ian Birchall wrote an obituary of the man in the November issue. It seemed to some of us to be an inadequate assessment, and the following letter (here slightly shortened) was sent to the editor.”

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

Eduardo Frajman: The Political Theory of Che Guevara (1 October 2018). Review of Renzo Llorente’s book (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2018, 196 p.).
“Llorente has chosen to present Guevara’s thought in a wholly sympathetic light, less as a response to the vituperations of the Right than to the tendency in the Left to downplay Guevara’s theories as superficial, unrealistic, doctrinaire or as artifacts of their own time.” See also review by Sean Ledwith (ibid., 31 October 2018).

Marxists Internet Archive

Raya Dunayevskaya: The double tragedy of Che Guevara (1967)
“To work out a new relationship of guerrilla fighting to social revolution, .. of the class struggles of the factory workers and those of agricultural laborers remains the task. In this way alone can the death of Che Guevara become a movement …”

Che Guevara: Cuba and the U.S. (Vol.13, No.4, September 1961).
“The questions were submitted, in writing, to Comandante Guevara by Leo Huberman during the week of the invasion; the answers were received the end of June …”

MR Online

John Riddell: Che Guevara’s final verdict on the Soviet economy (June 12, 2008).
“One of the most important developments in Cuban Marxism in recent years has been increased attention to the writings of Ernesto Che Guevara on the economics and politics of the transition to socialism.”

NACLA: Reporting on the Americas

Carlos Vilas: Anniversary essay: Regis debray on Che Guevara (Vol.30, No.3, November-December 1997).
“Here, by way of a sharp critique of the political thought and practice of the French intellectual Regis Debray, Carlos Vilas reconsiders the meaning of Che Guevara’s death in Bolivia, 30 years ago next October.”

Samuel Farber: The Resurrection of Che Guevara (Vol.7, No.1, Whole No.25, Summer 1998).
“There are attractive aspects of Che Guevara. .. In the last analysis, however, the political question remains: was Che Guevara a friend or foe of emancipatory, liberatory politics? The historical record is clear; Guevaraism is incompatible with the struggle to build an egalitarian and democratic society, a society in which working people decide their own fate without reliance on ‘well-intentioned saviors’.”

Organise: For class struggle anarchism

Che Guevara – a second myth is exploded (Issue 47, Winter 1997/98; online at Internet Archive WayBackMachine).
“… there seems to be a revival among the young in the idea of Che as idealistic hero and fighter for freedom. This hero cult seems to have infected many young radicals … The truth may be unpalatable to many.” Tidligere dansk oversættelse på nettet: Mord på myten Che (Sabot, nr. 1, 2002).

Thirty years since the death of Ernesto Guevara (Vol.7, No.3, 2000, p.262-277).
“An interview with Ricardo Napuri … a Peruvian, and has been involved in politics and revolutionary activities for 50 years.”

Judith Orr: Che: his life and legacy (Issue 1907, June 26, 2004).
“Che Guevara’s face is everywhere. But how much do we know about the man behind the myths, asks Judith Orr. A great new book from Mike Gonzalez: Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution (London, Bookmarks, 2004), gives answers to these and many other questions about the life and politics of Che.”
Også på dansk ovenover under Socialistisk Arbejderavis

Socialist Worker (US)

Todd Chretien: Who was Che?: the legacy of a revolutionary (Issue 648, October 12, 2007).
“Che Guevara’s image has inspired millions of people who want to fight for a better world. But very few people, especially in the U.S., know much about his life or politics. Todd Chretien looks beyond the image to describe Che’s real life, actions and ideas.”

Socialistworld.net

Tony Saunois: Che Guevara – symbol of struggle (1997; online på Internet Archive).
“During 1996 and 1997 numerous books, pamphlets and articles have been published by assorted writers about Ernesto Guevara to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of his execution. Throughout the world he is known simply as ‘Che’. He was given this nickname by friends and comrades in struggle when he was in Mexico during the 1950s. Che is a commonly used term in Argentina – his native country. In 1997 young people in Latin America and Europe have begun to wear Che Guevara T-shirts and display posters of his portrait”.

Solidarity

Paul Hampton: Guevara the economist? Workers short-changed (3/157, 20 August 2009). Review of Helen Yaffe Che Guevara: the economics of revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
“Yaffe’s book contains new material that merits discussion. It is the product of a PhD thesis, involving 60 interviews with nearly 50 of Guevara’s closest collaborators. It reviews Guevara’s so-called ‘great debate’ about economic planning in the mid-1960s, but also lesser known elements, such as his critique of the Soviet manual of political economy.”

Paul Hampton: No hero of ours (3/57, 2 September 2004). Review of Mike Gozalez Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution (Bookmarks, 2004).
“Much that has been written about Guevara glosses over the essentials of his politics. This book does little to dispel the myths and even seeks to reclaim him for the revolutionary socialist tradition. Gonzalez obscures important differences between Guevara’s ‘revolutionary’ Stalinism and authentic working class socialism.”

State of Nature

On Che Guevara: An interview with Jon Lee Anderson by Cihan Aksan and Jon Bailes (Spring 2010; online at Internet Archive WayBackMachine).
“To sit in judgement of these historical phenomena and indict Cuba’s revolution as a failed social experiment, to blast the left for having the temerity to take up arms when it could have been done another way, that’s revisionism of the crassest type.”

Trotskyist International

Mark Abram: Che Guevara: the man, his struggles, his ideas (No.22, July-December 1977, p.50-59; online at Internet Archive WayBackMachine).
“While not indulging in the cult of the personality, Anderson’s book bears witness to the power of Che’s personality; a driving, self-sacrificing, utterly demanding character … It is not an iconoclastic biography; nor is it a critique of Guevara’s ideas. It does not challenge Guevara’s writings on guerrillaism, nor his positions in the debates among the Cuban leaders over the transition to socialism, for example. But it does provide new information that allows a clearer appreciation of Guevara’s relations with Fidel Castro, with Cuban Stalinism and his changing views on the USSR and China”.

The Unrepentant Marxist

Louis Proyect: Was Che Guevara a Stalinist? (December 12, 2012).
“Working my way at a leisurely pace through Sam Farber’s egregiously wrongheaded Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959, I came across this remarkable comparison between Joseph Stalin’s foreign policy and Che’s: …”

Workers’ Liberty

Pablo Velasco: Guevara is not our hero (3 July 2017).
“Guevara was never a working class socialist nor even a revolutionary democrat. He helped overthrow the hated dictator Batista in Cuba, but only to replace it with a Stalinist regime.”

Che Guevara: the politics behind the icon (28 May 2007)
“Much that has been written about Guevara glosses over the essentials of his politics. Need to dispel the myths and reject attempts reclaim him for the revolutionary socialist tradition or the anti-capitalist movement. Clarify important differences between Guevara’s ‘revolutionary’ Stalinism and authentic working class socialism.”

Pablo Velasco: How should Che Guevara be commemorated? (Issue 43, November, 1997).
“In Workers’ Liberty 42 , Helen Rate rightly criticises the Socialist Workers’ Party’s opportunistic attitude towards Che Guevara … Although I agree with Helen’s overall assessment of Guevara, I think that certain issues about his life and politics need to be drawn out more sharply than an article which focuses on the SWP is able to do.”